Iran seeks to block Waze because of Israel

Iran working to block access to geographical navigation application which was founded by Israelis.

Elad Benari, 10/10/17 03:45

Waze (illustration)

Yonatan Sindel/Flash 90

Iran is working to block access to the geographical navigation application Waze due to its Israeli background, the Azerbaijan-based Trend News Agency reported on Monday.

Access to the app was temporary blocked in March, but the ban was removed later, according to the report.

Abdolsamad Khorramabadi, secretary of the Iranian cyberspace watchdog, said on Monday that the committee had asked the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology to block the app again.

A team has been commissioned to take the necessary measures to block Iranians’ access to Waze, Khorramabadi added.

Waze, which was founded by Israelis Ehud Shabtai, Amir Shinar and Uri Levine, was purchased by Google in 2013 for $966 million.

Iran, which is notorious for its internet censorship, in 2014 banned access to the WhatsApp messaging application because it is owned by a Jewish “American Zionist”, a reference to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who bought the company that year.